Civic skills need to be practiced to keep the democracy strong, and civic training materials should be exciting and linked to real-world activities. Today, teaching government and social studies can be, must be, about students' real lives. A unit of study on "Tracking Congress" would offer an opportunity to connect civics and government…

Five years ago, Diana Hess was teaching a graduate seminar called "Democratic Education." The purpose of the seminar was to critically analyze two seemingly simple, but actually very complex, questions: What is democracy? What is democratic education? Both are contested concepts, and the seminar was designed to help students understand…

Academic freedom is the freedom to inquire--to study, learn, teach, express, and debate ideas. Academic freedom is essential to education in a democracy, a professional responsibility of teachers, and the fundamental purpose for social education. These ideas occur in the traditional education literature. Academic freedom is not just a professional…

With the 2008 election quickly approaching, candidates continue the scramble to fund their campaigns--collecting money from individuals, corporations, and labor unions. Students can learn a great deal about the political system by examining how politicians are financed. The vast majority of high school students do not understand the influence of…

The women's movement has helped define and has in turn been shaped by the basic constitutional concepts of the privileges of a citizen, the equal protection of the laws and the limited powers of the government. (Author)

The right to life encompasses the basic needs for self-preservation. An examination of legal action in the area of environmental problems raises a question concerning man's right to life if resort to the courts and legislative halls fails. (Author/JB)

Corporations wielding greater power than many states and some nations make decisions having far greater implications for communities than do the local laws governing those communities. It is speculated that the constitutional framers may have provided checks, balances and constraints for them as they did for government if their potential power had…

Outlines historical legislation affecting immigration to the United States, explains current laws and how they affect immigration, summarizes the process for obtaining citizenship, describes the experience of immigrants with the legal system, introduces the work of pro bono (free) legal services for immigrants, and presents related teaching…